Month: December 2015

Jelle Klaasen stunned world number three Phil Taylor to book a place in the quarter-finals of the PDC World Championship.

Having earlier missed the chance to move 3-1 ahead, Dutchman Klaasen had one dart to hit double 18 and knock out the 16-time World Champion but he missed and Taylor took advantage to tie things up at 3-3.

Taylor looked in charge of the deciding set as he moved two legs ahead, but the world number 19 was not done and roared back to win the tie-break 4-2 and claim a 4-3 victory to set up a clash with Alan Norris, whose fairytale Alexandra Palace debut continued earlier in the day as he saw off Mark Webster in five sets.

Klaasen told Sky Sports 3: "I almost gave that away. You know you can't miss against Phil.

"I never gave up and I still felt I could win the game so I'm over the moon."

After praising Klaasen for his performance, Taylor said: "Do you want me to be honest? I'm not fit enough, I'm not mentally right.

"I've got over this year now. I'm getting divorced in February – it's well publicised – so next year I can push on."

Peter Wright won an incredible seven-set thriller in a dramatic tie-break at the expense of Dave Chisnall to book his place in the last eight.

Last year's runner-up, who will now face double world champion Adrian Lewis, eventually took the final set 6-4 after Chisnall had missed a dart for the match.

Wright hit 14 180s and had an average of 103.69, while Chisnall had nine maximums with an average of 102.26 and hit a 160 finish in the third set.

In the decider, Chisnall missed double 16 to win the match 4-2, allowing Wright to draw level at 3-3 but the final set went to 10 legs, with Wright landing a double six to progress.

There will be no play on December 31, with the quarter-finals being held on New Year's Day across two sessions.

The ESPN FC crew don't expect any upsets at Euro 2016, listing the usual suspects as potential winners. With 20 of the 24 nations competing at Euro 2016 now decided — with the final four to come through November's playoffs — UEFA has announced the tournament schedule for next summer.
Here, we look at the full match schedule for the competition, ahead of the finals draw which will take place on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. CET/12 p.m. ET.
Key: In the knockout stages, "W" denotes the group winner and "R" the runner-up. For example, WF vs. RE is the winner of Group F vs. the runner-up of Group E.